Evangelion: Beneath the archangel's wing
by Jerricom
Summary: FROM THE GRIM AND FROZEN NORTH OF SWEDEN comes a full-length "rebuild" of NGE. There have been tweeks, there have not been twerks, but wait! There's more! And what that may be, is for me to know and you to find out as Tokyo-3 falls under the archangel's wing. (The first chapter gives the series's name falsly, "Sin from genesis", which was the series' original name, sorry.) Enjoy!
1. Ch1: The spark of ignition

**Evangelion: Sin from Genesis.  
**

**Chapter 1, Prologue: The spark of ignition.**

The sunlight strikes the young man right in the face as he exits the train and he has to raise a hand to prevent the sun from blinding him completely. Throwing his gaze around, Shinji Ikari takes a moment to get his bearings, a task that isn't to difficult considering almost nobody else got off the train with him, and the station is fairly empty anyways. Hefting his backpack over his shoulders he heads for the main station building, thinking _not that I was expecting the red carpet, but this place seems oddly deserted_.

As earlier mentioned, he is Shinji Ikari. 16 years of age and not very muscular, he's a very classical statue of a middle teen. He sports a pair of ultramarine blue eyes and unruly brown hair, clothed in a white buttoned shirt over a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans and a pair of black sneakers. And right now, Shinji is not in the best of moods.

Making it out of the railway station and into the not-so-much bustling city of Tokyo-3, Shinji once again looks around, and then takes up a picture from his left pocket.

"Aaand I guess i'll just wait here then," he says quietly to himself as he eyes the photo for the omphtieth time since he got on the train. The small card displays the image of a young woman clad in flowing purple hair that goes well beyond her shoulders. Turning the card over is says to wait for 'Misato Katsuragi' at the railway station. She's the one to take Shinji to his dad, apparently.

Shinji is not sure whether he's happy or not about the fact that Misato is _not_ his babysitter who's going to take him home from a class trip or the like. Oh no. _The only contact we've had in the past seven-eight years is through video chat, it's not been many hours in total, and now he just calls me here like this?_ He thinks in his usual passive aggressive way as he looks around again.

Very few cars populate the road that goes past the railway station, making it easy for Shinji to discern by the approaching sound the one that probably represents his ride home. Turning around he spies the blue car approaching, and with the sunlight aimed directly towards the driver Shinji can clearly make out the purple mass of hair and black sunglasses.

The car slowly grinds to a halt right next to Shinji and the door swings open. "Shinji Ikari?" the woman asks, craning her head to look up at Shinji as he steps up to the car and answers, "Yes, that's me. You're Misato, I take it?"

"That's right. Get in, i'll be taking you to your dad," the woman states in a cheerful tone, taking off her sunglasses. She has dark green eyes, and Shinji guesses her age to be in the middle-twenties.

Shinji nods, and stoves his bags into the back seat before taking the seat next to Misato, and the car takes off down the road.

After a few minutes of silence, Misato finally speaks up, "So, Shinji.. I don't know what you've been told, but if you have questions regarding your father's work, I could have some answers for you." At this, Shinji stirs from his own passive silence, and turns his head towards Misato, "Oh, well then.. I guess the obvious question is, what exactly does he do?"

Misato takes a minute to collect her response, her tone more even now, "I can't tell you any details, but let's just say that he's the commander of one of _NERV_'s five worldwide bases, NERV being an organisation which function will be made clear to you in the not to distant future, i'd think." Shinji frowns a little, taking a moment to process this, "NERV? But what does he need me for?" Shinji turns his eyes towards the road again and leans back, expecting, or rather hoping for, an answer somewhere along the lines of 'catching up to lost time' or 'surprise revelation that he has a sister.'

"He needs you to stand on the frontline of an upcoming war," comes the flat answer from Misato. _And that's why we can't have nice things._

"What? _The hell are you talking about?_" Shinji turns to Misato once more, the distress you could expect from a sixteen-year-old that hears _that_ etched into his face, "What do you mean 'war'? It's been my solid impression that global peace was signed a decade ago?"

"I wish I could tell you more, but-" Misato is broken off mid-sentence by her phone ringing. She picks it up, looks at the screen, and her expression changes from cheerful to a mix of concern and surprise, mumbling something about "why would _they_ be calling me" and brings the phone to her ear.

– –

–

–

–

– –

Slamming down the phone, the elderly man rises from his elevated position, and throws his gaze around the massive command centre. One half is occupied by an empty void, which to most would seem a strange waste of space. The other half is taken up by a set of elevated platforms set up in three levels, the man in question standing behind a desk on the uppermost level.

Nodding to himself briefly and sighs in resignation to the inevitable, he then opens his mouth to speak, "I've just received a call from the JNSDF reporting an enormous object coming in from the sea, on a straight course for Tokyo-3. Everything that approached the object has been lost. One message was send from a civilian plane, describing the object as a grotesque entity, a vaguely anthropomorphic creature almost as tall as a sky-scraper."

From the level below him, a woman barely out of her teens sitting at one of the three junior command officer stations speaks up, worry evident in her voice, "Angel, commander Fuyutsuki?"

"Angel," the elderly man replies, and speaks up once more, this time activating a small mic attached to his ear that amplifies his voice so that it reaches every corner of the enormous room and into every speaker in the complex, "All combatants and command staff, report to your stations! Combat code One, red alert!"

Throughout the massive underground complex alarms go on, painting every corridor with red light as men and women abandon their idle activities, scrambling to whatever station and whatever duty that is required of them. Inside the massive command centre earlier mentioned, the empty half of the room is lit up by layers of holographic displays showing the city, the region the city occupies, the entirety of Japan, and the massive underground cavity below Tokyo-3, underneath which NERV lies. A viewscreen large enough to encompass the entire far wall also blinks to life, directed out towards the ocean.

"What is our situation?" Fuyutsuki asks as he takes his seat again, pressing a button upon the keyboard on the desk before him.

"Hostile not yet detected by our own sensor stations. Judging by the reports, though, it won't stay that way for long. I'm guessing at contact within the hour."

The third officer present below Fuyutsuki speaks up now, "Interception systems operating at 20% efficiency. We can't bring any of the heavy guns to bear yet, they havn't been cleared for use."

"Very well," Fuyutsuki replies, "Someone get the commander up here! I'm calling Misato. I believe she's in town to pick up the fourth child."

– –

–

–

–

– –

The car picks up speed, so much that it probably exceeds the speed limit. "**Holy crap, what's the frikkin' hurry?!**" Shinji half-screams as the car speeds down the roads, making turns that are to clumsy and hap-hazard for Shinji's comfort. Outside, every screen display's gone from displaying commercials or whatever to:

**Evacuation code Red**

**Please drop current activity and head for your designated shelter**

**This is not a drill**

Voice completely lost of the earlier friendliness, there's now a flat proffesionalism about Misato that tells Shinji that something isn't right, "Well, Shinji, I believe you'll be getting your answers sooner rather than later. What's presumed to be the enemy has been sighted off the coast and is heading for this city. I'm getting you to NERV HQ pronto, so civil introductions with the rest'll have to wait." Face hardened and eyes focused upon the road,_ for all it helps her driving_ Shinji thinks, Misato changes the gears up one more level.

Having desperately tried, and partially succeeded, to calm himself despite the **crazy** that's going on, Shinji manages to get out a well-articulated sentence, "Uhm.. could you please tell me how exactly I will be combating this enemy? I havn't held a gun ever in my life. But I doubt you'd bring me here just to haul my ass into the trenches, exactly." Shinji makes an attempt, in vain, to sound humorous with that last sentence, and gives Misato a worried look. She answers only with, "Not exactly, no."

They continue in silence, the only noise being the roar of the engine, the agonised screams of the car's tires and the alarms outside still announcing the evacuation. The car eventually reach some sort of checkpoint, and once past it -Misato just flashed some card and they were let through- they enter a car-sized elevator, which takes them downwards in a rather steep descent.

And then there was light. Again.

_Wow! It's a Geofront! A real Geofront!_ is all that Shinji can think as he squeezes his face against the car's window, trying to take in as much of the massive underground cavity as he can. It's roughly dome-shaped, with the city sitting on top of the massive cave. Underneath the city, upon the floor of the Geofront there is a chalk-white pyramid build next to an artificial concrete lake. The Geofront is, all in all, large enough to encompass a small lake, by the looks of it.

They continue along a rail path built into the side of the cavern, and eventually reach the ground, where they once again are taken underground, which seems kind of excessive to Shinji. Finally the car comes to a stop, and Misato parks the car inside the steel and concrete parking house. They both exit, Misato gesturing to Shinji to follow her into one of the elevators waiting for them.

Misato keeps a hurried pace, and seem tense as the lift goes up. But suddenly she relaxes, a bit, and turns her head down towards Shinji, "I'm sorry I just kinda dropped you from my mental radar, there.. The command central, Central Dogma as we call it, has received word from the japanese military that a massive object is approaching Tokyo-3. We believe it's one of a race of supernatural beings we call Angels. Your job here is to fight these beings." The frown comes again as Shinji gives Misato a confused stare that lasts a good ten seconds, before Shinji slowly demands, "Come again..?"

"You will be the sole pilot of a war machine specifically designed to combat the Angels. I'm taking you to our chief scientist so that we can give you some rudimentary practice before the Angel arrives, and then you're off to glorious battle!" Misato grins and gives Shinji a rough slap in the back.

Shinji, however, is not impressed, "You're telling me that **i'm** to pilot a giant robot I've _never seen or heard of before_ in order to, without _ANY PRIOR WARNING OR COMBAT EXPERIENCE_, **combat one of the** _**greatest threats mankind has ever faced?!"**_ Shinji stops a moment before at last saying at length, turning his head from left to to right to find the correct words, which he finally does,** "**_**Are You Kidding Me**_**?"**

Misato's shoulders slump, and her cheerful grin fades. Her face again hardens, and she turns her eyes away from Shinji, back towards the elevator door. She suddenly seems sad, like one powerless to change a bad situation, "I'm sorry, Shinji. I like it no less than you do, but you won't be alone here. And you will be well-prepared. Well, that part depends partially on you."

Shinji opens his mouth to protest again, but is halted by the elevator stopping and the two being deposited into yet another featureless corridor. Misato picks up the pace, their shoes clacking against the metal floor. Shinji gives up protesting, and instead asks, "You mentioned the chief scientist earlier, Misato?"

"Oh yes.. _Ritsuko Akagi_." There's a rather clear indication in Misato's voice that these women arn't at the best of terms, "She heads this place's science division, while I am the head of military operations. The commander still has supreme power over this place, but he can't do everything on his own."

"Makes sense," Shinji responds. And once again he's about to say something more when he's interrupted by rather narrowly rounding a corner – and running his face straight into someone's chest, plain surprise combined by the impact of batting your forehead against something like a ribcage nocking Shinji back so hard that he would fall, if not for being caught in the last second by Misato.

When Shinji regains his balance, he's faced with whom he collided with – a tall woman dressed in a labcoat, in her middle twenties with short, thick blonde hair. Next to her stands an even younger woman with black hair, not much taller or older than Shinji. They both looks just as surprised as Shinji probably does, but as the blonde turns to look upon Shinji's escort her face darkens ever so slightly, "Well, Misato. Just in time, it seems. And you have the fourth child with you."

"Yes I do. This is Ritsuko Akagi, by the way," Misato says in a subtly venomous tone. She folds her arms, giving Ritsuko a brief stare-down before she motions to the third woman, standing patiently and waiting next to Ritsuko, "And this is Maya Ibuki. She's a senior bridge officer here at NERV, and Ritsuko's assistant. Please follow her, she'll take you to your father."

Ritsuko nods off-handedly in confirmation at Maya, said woman turning on her heel, giving Shinji a warm smile as they both go down the corridor opposite to the one the two women came from.

Shinji glances at Maya briefly as they walk, and comes to the conclusion that his dad is not in fact commander of an organisation that will save humanity from invasion by the angels, but running his own personal harem. Great.

"I assume you've only met Misato, Ritsuko and me here, so far?" Maya suddenly asks, her azure blue eyes directed directly at Shinji, knowing eyes, the eyes that, despite belonging to a super-nerd can read you in an instant, "Uh.. Yeah."

Flashing a small grin to go with her penetrating gaze, Maya continues in an amused tone, "Well, don't worry. It's not like your father's running a harem here or anything."

– –

–

–

–

– –

Shinji and Maya having left, Ritsuko gestures to Misato in the direction of the corridor that Ritsuko and Maya came from, "Come, Misato. The JSSDF defence committee wants to see you."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Misato turns and starts walking down the corridor, Ritsuko following right behind as Misato returns, "Sounds important." The blonde nods, keeping her neutral calm. The set of corridors they now enter is more populated than previously, doors lining the walls which occasionally deposit some NERV employee into the winding metal pathways. All of the regular NERV employees are wearing beige jackets with dark orange stripes at the shoulders and pants to match, whereas the women wear short beige skirts and white linen tights. Misato is dressed in a red bomber jacket with the same orange stripes over a tight-fitting formal black dress, while Ritsuko simply sports a labcoat, dark blue sweater and skirt.

Then they both slowly stop as they distinguish the dark brown formal uniform of NERV-3's deputy commander approaching with fast steps.

"Deputy commander Fuyutsuki," Misato says at length, a small smile for the first time in a while crossing her face as she grabs the elderly man by the hand, shaking it briefly. Ritsuko and the deputy commander exchange a nod for greeting, and the three are off down the corridor again.

"You're looking good, Misato. How've you been holding up since you were out on assignment?" Fuyutsuki breaks into a small smile of his own, reminding Misato of a grandfather asking his step-children what happened during the last school trip. The question prompts a hearty chuckle from her, and she draws her hand through her flowing purple hair as she gathers her response, "Well, it took a while to get used to the western food and customs. I just hope I remember how to act properly," she says with a grin.

"Yeah, you never knew how to cook anyway, so nothing lost there," Ritsuko breaks in, prompting Misato to spin on her heel, half-shout "Shut your face!" at Ritsuko and turn again to catch up to Fuyutsuki, having lost only two, maybe three steps on him. The deputy commander doesn't seem to mind the little outburst, but does raise an eyebrow and turns his head calmly towards Ritsuko, falling a step behind Misato, "Speaking of cooking, Ritsuko.. How are we doing with Unit-00? Been able to cook up any solution to the Vessel problem?"

"I believe so," Ritsuko says, pondering, her somewhat gloomy mood gone in an instant, "It won't be ready to be used for another two-three days, however. We're going to have to rely upon Unit-01 until then."

"Very well," Fuyutsuki responds as they round another corridor, coming up to a large stair. When they reach the base, Misato grins to a halt and turns around, eyes affixed upon Fuyutsuki, "By the way.. Judging by all this activity," Misato throws her arms out, gesturing at the significant traffic in the corridor, "I'll assume you wern't kidding when you called. So, why are you taking me to the JSSDF defence committee, and not Central Dogma?"

Ritsuko comes up to a still-not-moving Misato, giving earlier mentioned purple-hair a brief glance as she goes, and then looks up at the deputy commander, "Do you really believe it's the Angels?"

Fuyutsuki frowns ever so slightly, "Indeed. But we don't know for certain."

"What else could it be?" Ritsuko replies, folding her arms, her voice unusually harsh for a second.

"If I knew that.." Fuyutsuki bounces his eyes between the two women before him.

Misato folds her arms, determinance practically written over her face, "It's the Angels. And we're not ready."

"Not by a long shot.." Ritsuko injects with a gloomy undertone.

At this, Fuyutsuki chuckles a little to himself, knowing that one is foolish to argue with these two when they agree, and simply states, "Well I hope you aren't quite as adamant about that when you're asked by the defence committee. They need some at least relatively good news or they'll do something stupid. Let's go."

The two women exchange a quick glance, and then follows the deputy commander up the stairs. As they get to the top, Misato breaks the silence again, "Look, unless the committee's planning on talking the Angels to death, they're a waste of time. I should be up in Central Dogma and Ritsuko should be down helping Maya with Shinji and Unit-01."

Fuyutsuki's shoulders slump at this, and he turns to Misato, voice raised ever so slightly, "_Damn you and your impatience._ They're just scared. They haven't _seen_ what you've seen, only the reports, the data SEELE and you collected. It's all just theory to them," Fuyutsuki states in a matter-of-factly manner.

Once again Misato's eyebrows furrow into a frown directed at Fuyutsuki, voice borderline angry, "That why they've been constantly denying me promotion, denying NERV the defence budget it needs?"

Raising a hand up in a defensive manner, Fuyutsuki states in a tone to match, "You know that's not true. Would you be willing to send, say, the Red Cross _millions of dollars worth of money_ just because they're claiming, from dubious evidence _AT BEST_, that a massive plague will erupt _AT SOME POINT_? NERV, and especially you, lieutenant colonel, have been a rather sharp thorn in the side of their attempts to rebuild the Japanese military for the last decade. You should feel lucky that we have what we've got, and that we have _ONLY_ because we have the Evangelions to show off."

"That, and your good word, sir?" Misato asks with the edge of her lip curled into a subtle grin.

After a second's hesitation, Fuyutsuki responds, "Yeah, I trust you, Misato, and so does the japanese government."

"I'm just a soldier, Fuyutsuki, not a politician," Misato states with no room for discussing the alternative.

Fuyutsuki nods, his face set, "I don't need you to be either. I just need you, and everyone here, to do whatever the hell it takes to stop the Angels."

– –

–

–

–

– –

_This might be the coolest thing that ever has, and will, happen to me,_ Shinji thinks. He was taken along by Maya through a maze of corridors, a few elevators, to finally take a short boat ride across a smaller _lake_ inside what appeared to be a giant hangar. And then he was brought into the presence of what these people here at NERV call an Evangelion.

An anthropomorphic, skin-fitting armour-clad machine with a dominantly purple, and green colour scheme stands before him. Tall as a small sky-scraper, pylons of some description attached to each shoulder, he's just decided that he could at least give it a trial run. Surely whatever's coming ain't got nothing on this?

"Alright, Shinji, Please leave your shirt here, it'll get in your way in the entry plug," says Maya as she gestures to a trolley standing upon the bridge next to them. The Evangelion is locked rather firmly in place by a pair of _frikkin' walls_ that holds the robot's arms in place, and a large bridge that serves to 1) lock down the Evangelion at the shoulders, just next to the neck and 2) enable people to get near the thing, as the Evangelion is drowned chest up in the same red liquid the earlier-mentioned lake was made up of.

Shinji went on to unbutton and remove his shirt, and in exchange he was given a headset-like device that Maya told him he is supposed to place on his head. "It augments your synchronization with the Evangelion," Maya explains, "Now, let's get you into the entry plug. I'll be going back to the command centre now, but we'll talk you through everything we do here, alright?"

"Uh, alright," Shinji responds as he's shown around the back of the Evangelion by another NERV employee, and up a ramp. Then there's a sound like a crane coming to life overhead, and looking up Shinji can see a holding arm lifting down a cylinder of some description, almost completely featureless exempt for a hatch that opens up before him as it stops. A part of the armour plating covering the Evangelion's upper neck opens up and reveals a hole in the Evangelion's spine, -because apparently it has one- probably where he assumes this cylinder is supposed to fit in. Shinji stands and inspects the cylinder tentatively, thinking _This day has been so full of crazy, __**what am I doing? **__But there's no turning back now,_ he figures.

"Shinji!"

A woman's voice echoes through the hangar, one that Shinji recognises. And turning around, he sees a woman walking up to him from below. Short brown hair and slender figure, Yui Ikari's shoes echo against the metal as she steps up to Shinji.

A small smile breaking out over his face, Shinji steps away from the entry plug, "Mother? You are here too? Where-" Shinji gets out no more as Yui embraces him tightly, "**It's so good to see you again**, **Shinji**, but to meet under these circumstances.. I'm sorry."

"Well, it'd been nice to have you here as insurance when they tried to convince me to get into the giant robot.. I'm no kid, but knowing that one's mother is around to be seen after, what, ten years? That helps."

Yui lets out a sigh and slowly lets Shinji go, staring into his eyes in a very maternal fashion for a moment, clapping him on the shoulder, "Well, i'm here now. Had the situation been any different, I would not be encouraging you to do this, but this is important. You are our last line of defence."

"Figured i'd find you both here," another voice comes from below. When mother and son turns their heads down towards the voice, Yui keeping a hand on Shinji's shoulder, it seems to him that he's been set up_ all along_. This _is _the most elaborate and exaggerated late birthday party _ever_.

Down below, sporting a black formal jacket and pants, Gendo Ikari adjusts his amber glasses as he looks up at the two, "We don't have much time, i'm afraid. Shinji, i'm standing with your mother in that we need you in on this. I hate to say it, but introductions'll have to wait. The Angel is still on its way."

Yui sighs again in resignation, and lets go of Shinji. She gives him one last look, as if trying to reassure him, and then she begins stepping down the stairs towards Gendo, which continues, "We'll be walking you through this. Now get in the giant robot, son," he finishes with a subtle smile, his voice cheery for a moment. And it does reassure Shinji somewhat. _Awesome._

And so he climbs in.

– –

–

–

–

– –

"Alright, like Ray Arnold said: 'hold on to your butts', we're starting synchronisation!"

Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba grins to himself as he taps a last button on his own keyboard, the main viewscreen coming to life, displaying the purple Evangelion as it stands now in an enormous, featureless white room, a gate just closing behind the Evangelion. The transport pad which is still holding the motionless mecha slowly sinks into the floor, and Shigeru gestures dramatically to the girl on the other side of the second tier of the command bridge, "Take over, Maya."

Nodding, the short-haired girl swiftly taps in a few commands, a code, and then makes way for Ritsuko, who taps in one of her own. Yui then does the same, having arrived at the bridge together with Gendo. "The Evangelion is cleared for synchronisation," she states, anticipation evident in her voice. "Ready, Shinji?"

And inside the plain entry plug, Shinji nods, trying his best to keep calm.

"Beginning preliminary contact. First stage connection initialised."

"Roger," it comes from the third level, "filling the entry plug with LCL."

And Shinji can, with increasing worry, notice how a bright amber liquid starts filling the entry plug from the bottom. "The hell is this? _**Why is there**_**-**" and he gets out no more as the liquid gets over his head, the western proverb that he's taken water over his head coming to mind.

Letting out a subtle sigh, Ritsuko steps up to the mic build in to Maya's station, saying, "It's called LCL. It will act as a shock absorbent during combat. And it's oxygenated, too. You can breathe it perfectly well."

"That's the truth, Shinji. It's harmless," Yui injects.

Inside the entry plug, Shinji tries to fight down his instinctive will _not_ to open his mouth because every nerve in his body's telling him _he's about to frikkin' drown_ but being convinced that his own mother wouldn't want to do that, he finally opens his mouth, and instead has to fight down the urge to vomit as the liquid fills his lungs. But he does survive.

"Good," Maya continues, "Connect main power."

"Connecting main power," Makato Hyuga announces, being the third second-level bridge officer.

"Commencing secondary connections. A-10 connections nominal."

"Set the thought configuration to Japanese," Ritsuko says, hand on Maya's shoulder as they go on.

Maya taps in some command into her console, and then announces with anticipation, "Bi-directional circuits are open. All preliminary contacts established."

"Synchronization rate holding at.. 30%.. 35%.. 40%.. 42%!" Yui states with surprise and amazement, "Impressive. You're doing good, Shinji!"

"Uh.. Yeah, that's great, please tell me the rainbow ride i just took was normal?" Shinji sounds somewhat distressed, the small screen in the top right corner of the viewscreen showing him moving his head here and there, as if trying to discern whether his world is real or not.

And Yui can't help notice, with a smile growing on her lips, that the Evangelion's head is moving as well.

– –

–

–

–

– –

"Read out the apocrypha!"

"Yes. The Dead Sea Scrolls foretells.."

"Of the advance of the Fourth. The first to rise from the ashes of its mother's fire."

"Of the rise of **Adirael**. The first to graze this world once more."

"Of the rise of the first of the Messengers. For the first time, the world will know the Magnificence of God.

"Rise for the first time, children of Adam."

– –

–

–

–

– –

Ritsuko's surprised that Shinji's learning to operate the Evangelion so quickly. Well, the term 'operate' being relative, he's just figured how to jump from one side of the room to the other. _Oh Joy,_ she thinks. "Alright, Shinji, I want you to try to draw your progressive knife. There's one stored inside each one of your shoulder pylons. Just think 'deploy prog knife', and then draw."

The Evangelion ceases its ridiculous hopping about the test room, and stands as if petrified for a moment, before the words 'Progressive knife deployed' are displayed upon the main viewscreen, and you can see the left shoulder pylon opening up at the front to reveal a handle. The Eva fumbles for a bit as it tries to draw the knife, and eventually succeeds, inspecting the stylish weapon as the edge begins to glow subtly white.

"That wasn't so hard.. How do I put it back in there?" Shinji wonders, and Ritsuko is just about to respond when an angry red light starts blinking over at Shigeru's console, and he hesitates a moment before answering, "The hostile's been sighted. Approaching fast. It'll reach the Tokyo-3 outskirts in approximately fifteen minutes."

"Blood pattern blue confirmed," Maya reports from her station.

"Well then. Training session's over, Shinji. Let's get the Eva to the launch pad." Walking over to Makato, Misato taps in a few commands of her own, then asks Makato, "Can you get a visual image of the target?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The viewscreen momentarily turns off, and then flashes to life again.

Then all in the bridge are faced with the statue of the Angel before them, a living proof of how small mankind ultimately is, at least technically speaking.

The Angel's still a little to far out for anyone to make a detailed account of the creature, but Misato can tell as much: it has the shape of a human torso, with what looks like a single leg hanging down from the 'hip', unmoving despite the Angel's rapid transit over the land. Its skin colour is a borderline black grey tint. She also thinks she can discern three pairs of thin, white appendages like bones sticking out from some point on the thing's back. She can see some sort of white lines going around the Angel's torso, but can't make out what they are, exactly. There is also a white dot between the Angel's 'shoulders', had it had arms.

Looking down at the ground, you can see rows of tanks lining up in the path of the approaching Angel. In the skies VTOLs soar through the evening gloom, and all at once missiles, rockets and tank fire hails down upon the Angel.

Then there's a point of light, centred upon the white dot on angel's upper chest, between the 'shoulders', and the ground vibrates ever so slightly as a massive explosion rip up the amassed tank columns, a pillar of pink energy shooting into the sky, and as it reaches the cloud layer it develops two horizontal pillars as well, taking the form of a crucifix.

And so, it begins.


	2. Ch2: The ultimate soldier

**Chapter 2, Prologue: The ultimate soldier.**

In unity, a line of tanks roll over the land, stopping, the barrels rising into the sky, infrared target seekers locking on to the, to them, radiant crimson giant. Shells loaded, primed for firing.

Overhead, sleek jet fighter-bombers soar, the crescendo of their engines a prelude to the coming thunder. Missile compartments open up, metal noses turn down in a gentle dive.

In the Tokyo-3 bay a pair of submarines surface, their massive, featureless backs opening up to reveal massive rows upon rows of missile tubes. An elderly battleship throws down anchor a bit outside the bay, the metal monster aiming its barrels in towards the land.

And their target of them all: A bony mask, flat, mouthless beak turned down, two lidless eyes gazing upon the defenders, into the barrels of mankind's guns.

The latter responds with fire.

This is the scene that plays out before the evacuated city of Tokyo-3. First day of the war.

– –

–

–

–

– –

_This is as far as we can go_, Misato ponders to herself, _nothing more to do now than trust Shinji, and Yui's lifework. _

"Eva locked in place upon the launch pad," Shigeru reports. The bridge's an absolute ant hive of activity, as the military operation against the Angel is led from Central Dogma. "Good. You ready, Shinji?" Misato asks through the intercom.

"As good as i'll ever be, I guess. Let's just get this over with."

Gendo has taken position up on high with Fuyutsuki, hands clasped in front of his face in a calm and calculating fashion. He now takes the word, voice level and even, "Very well. Commence operation."

"Good luck, Shinji, and remember; you might be well-protected in there, but you will still partially feel the pain of the damage inflicted upon the Eva. Be careful," Yui injects just before Misato barks, "Eva Launch!"

Inside the entry plug, Shinji groans as he's pressed down against his seat hard, the Evangelion, Unit-01, racing towards the surface up towards Tokyo-3 upon magnetic rails connected to the pad upon which the Eva stands.

Then he's almost launched _out_ of his seat as the Eva reaches the surface, the support structure upon which the Eva is sealed unto connecting with a set of impact-absorbers, halting the giant robot in its ascent. Bolts automatically release from their locks and supermagnets are cut from power, and so the Eva sways a bit, then straightens, the chest heaving slightly as Shinji takes a deep breath to collect himself.

It's dusk, and the steadily blinking lights of the relentless bombardment that has been laid down upon the Angel has ceased. It now hangs before him, only a block or so away. _Fun times,_ Shinji thinks to himself, sarcasm having been evident in his voice if he'd said it.

As Misato earlier described, it has a vaguely anthropomorphic shape, despite its lack of arms and possessing only one leg, bereft of use since the Angel seems to prefer levitation, a faint halo ever-present above it's 'head' (the terminology "angel" is suddenly rather appropriate). Apart from that, it has three pairs of weaving, bony spines with at least half a dozen segments each, ending in spikes the size of the Eva's thumbs, protruding from some point upon the thing's back. And then there's the face, that white bony mask, perfectly circular eyes gazing upon Shinji as if measuring, pondering his every twitch.

And in the Angels' solar plexus region, half-buried in the dark skin is a crimson red orb, about the size of the Eva's head. Around this there are a set of rib-like structures, making up a swiss cheese cage around the sphere with only a thin vertical "slit" along the centre that isn't covered by bone.

"Soo.. What now?" Shinji says, keeping his cool, trying and testing how detailed movements he can get from the Eva as it clenches and unclenches its fists and scraping its foot along the ground a little. From the two-way com-link Misato's voice comes through, "Well, you got the movement part down last time, Shinji. Your imagination is your only limitation here, to be frank. Go at 'im!"

The giant robot rolls its shoulders in response to Shinji doing the same, and he sighs in resignation, making some last mental preparations. _Alright. Here goes_.

And so, the Eva takes a step forward, cracking the asphalt underneath it. Another step, the Eva's fists clench. A third, and the Eva starts picking up speed, quickly covering the distance between the two beings, the Angel simply staring at the Eva. Shinji brings the Eva's clenched fist back, and upon reaching the Angel Shinji punches – and he encounters no resistance, the fist connecting head-on with the Angel's bony face, the resulting _'BANG'_ shattering several nearby windows as metal meets bone, and the angel's back arcs as the upper body bends backwards with the blow in a really odd way, the angel seeming strangely unresponsive to the punishment it's being subjected to.

He presses the advantage and raises the Eva's foot, putting every ounce of force he can bring up in a kick right in the angel's solar plexus, cracking several of the rib bones as the Angel is nocked back. The angel crashes into a nearby building, which falls down upon the black mass with the resounding crashing of breaking glass and whining of bending metal, covering the creature in concrete and dust.

Shinji takes a moment to regain the Eva's balance, and to collect himself, thinking, _well that wasn't so bad,_ and taps a button upon the butterfly-wing controls which he's firmly gripping, calling Central Dogma, "Well, how'd I do?"

Yui's voice comes through almost immediately, "Good, but you must keep at it, the Angel's far from dead! You _have _to destroy that red orb to kill it!"

"Okay, uh, no problem. One sec.." Shinji turns his face away from the screen and repeats the same procedure he did earlier, tapping a pair of buttons upon his left control handle, and the Eva's left shoulder pylon opens up to reveal a switchblade, single-bladed knife. He draws it, somewhat more elegantly than last time, and takes a step towards the pile of rubble under which the Angel lies.

But he takes nothing more than one step, because just as the foot slams down upon the ground a golden glow starts seeping through the rubble, and slowly but surely the bits and pieces that once made up a multi-storey house begin levitating, floating up into the air upon tiny, white strings attached to them but to seemingly nothing above, as if an invisible puppetmaster was lifting the heap of metal and glass.

Rising from the ground, surrounded by a dome of broken windows, steel and plastic, the angel looks down at the Eva, eyes glowing baleful red. There's another pulse of golden light, and the rubble falls to the ground, whatever power affecting them now gone.

_Alright, point __**dually**__**taken**__. _Taking a step backwards, inside the Eva Shinji struggles to keep calm despite his every nerv telling him to simply trust in ye ole' instinct to run away. Misato's voice is suddenly carried into the entry plug by the mic, "S_hinji, you need to attack again_! _DON'T JUST STAND THERE_!"

Misato's voice is something to hold on to, and Shinji manages to shake the worst of the onsetting fear off of himself, retorting, "_Look, you coulda' frikkin' told me that thing has_ _MAGICAL POWERS!_ What the _HELL_ am I to do _NOW_?!"

Silence for a moment, then Misato answers, her voice more collected now, "Just use the knife to break that cage, and stab the core until it goes pop! _It's that easy,_ you don't have to worry."

"Alright, fine.." Regaining yielded ground the Evangelion tentatively steps forth, gripping the knife tight. And once again, the massive mecha breaks into a short sprint towards the Angel, jabbing at the chest cage-like structure protecting the core – and a collective gasp goes around in Central Dogma, and inside the Eva's entry plug, as the knife encounters a solid wall of energy, the golden light summoned forth once again by the Angel, manifesting as a two-dimensional hexagonal barrier that pulses outwards from the centre like water drops on the ocean, the field large enough to encompass the entire Angel.

"An AT field?!" Ritsuko exclamates, Misato staring at the screen in pure disbelief. "Shinji can't touch the Angel as long as that field is up!" says Yui. Misato turns her head to look at Yui with a grim expression, hoping that Yui can conform what she's about to ask, "But that goes both ways, right?"

However, Yui's eyes, as well as those of the others on the bridge, have now firmly locked onto the screen, and as Misato turns her eyes towards the events outside, a certain terror grips her that she hasn't experienced in a long time, sixteen to be precise.

Outside, the Angel's skeletal back appendages have wrapped around the rest of the body like a mummy, and as an angry red glow issues forth from the Angel's core they start sinking into the skin, mounds of flesh starting to form, blistering red like blood before taking on the grey-black coloration of the Angel itself.

"Oh my god.." Fuyutsuki breaths, as the ridges of flesh and skin begins to tear away from the Angel's body, and Shinji starts hyperventilating inside the Eva because _What the __**flying fuck**__ is going on_ as the Angel stretches the new pair of arms, these being longer than the Eva's arms and seems to possess almost twice the muscle mass. Each arm ends in three claw-like fingers, and as the Angel's halo once again manifests, brighter this time, the Angel starts advancing on Unit-01.

Shinji being on the borderline to panic, the Evangelion starts backing off from the Angel, stumbling over low buildings and nocking into the side of larger ones in a slow but increasingly frantic attempt to escape. The inevitable happens – the Eva steps on the roof of a two-storey building that holds up for a split second before collapsing, the foot sinking into the building, a massive cellar underneath, and the purple mecha looses balance, falling backwards. Shinji yelps in surprise, his already jumpy mood getting the better of him as he flails wildly all the way to the ground.

Ground meets Eva as tons of earth is dug up when the unit's right elbow comes down first, spreading asphalt and dirt everywhere as the rest of the mass of metal follows, crushing the better part of an entire block in the process. Groaning, Shinji struggles to get hold of something with which to pull himself up, but everything simply breaks in the Eva's grasp and just as Shinji decides to brute his way to his feet, and he looks up, he meets the glowing red eyes of the angel.

"**Damnit Shinji**, **GET UP! DEFEND YOURSELF**!" Misato shouts through the inter-com. But at this point Shinji is to terrified to act aggressively, and he rolls onto his back, raising his knife up against the angel in a desperate attempt to hold it off just as the angel reaches down for him. He slashes, and the knife cuts two of the Angel's fingers, the thing rearing back in apparent pain from the attack, the cut fingers falling to the ground, blistering and then simply popping, transforming into some sort of bright red liquid that splashes over the Evangelion's chest.

Regaining some mote of confidence at his attack's apparent success, Shinji manages to get the Evangelion into a kneeling position, and jabs at the Angel, stabbing the chest cage and breaking open a hole in the protective cage. He's just about to attack again, when the angel again reaches for Shinji with its other, unharmed hand, and he can't get out of the way fast enough. The massive hand comes down upon the Eva's head, grasping it firmly, and lifts the Eva up, lifts it off the ground, holding the struggling mecha about an Eva-sized feet off the ground.

Almost crushing the unit's head in its grasp as it is, Shinji's head hurting so bad that he can't think of anything else the angel sends its mutilated hand straight into the Eva's gut, Shinji gasping as if he'd been punched himself, although his low synchronization score doesn't give him the full sensation that the Eva gets, which is fortunate, because the Angel's blow was hard enough to bend the Evangelion's abdominal armour plates. The Angel retracts it's arm, the places where the fingers were previously located now blistering stumps, and swings again, this time striking the Evangelion right in the chest, the blow generating a small but briefly visible shockwave, sending the robot flying right into a high building, marks of red upon the armour where the Angel' punched it.

Groaning and gritting his teeth, Shinji manages with some effort to pull the Eva's head out from the building without causing it to fall down, and he looks up at the Angel in the distance, his eyes somewhat blurry for a moment. And deciding 'fuck it' in sheer desperation he weights the knife in his hand, and throws it. He is actually competent at darts, and he reasons that the basic premise is the same. So he throws, the knife soars reasonably accurately through the evening sky, only to stop a few dozen meters off the Angel's face, the golden barrier once again willed into existence. The weapon falls uselessly to the ground, crushing a car, and Shinji's pupils widen as far as they will as he gazes in terrified disbelief at the fading barrier.

And then, followed by a high-pitched gasp from Yui, the city is momentarily lit up by a white glow from the Angel's face, and the eyes flash in brilliant yellow and white, and unseen energy beam lancing across the distance between the Angel and Unit-01. It strikes the Evangelion right in the face, scorching armour plates and searing flesh as the Eva falls backwards, arms trailing limply behind it.

– –

–

–

–

– –

…

…

…

"God damnit,_**I don't care!**_ Do whatever it takes, _cut it open if you have to_, we have spare plugs!"

"Yes, ma'am."

...

...

...

"There we go.. We should be able to bend it open now, _someone hand me a crowbar_!"

...

...

...

"Oh god.. **Shinji! Are you- **Get the PMCP here! … _Don't care, just do it!"_

...

…

…

"**Shinji?-** _Yes, he's alive!_ _Now get it ready! _… Don't you worry, you'll see your parents again, kiddo."

– –

–

–

–

– –

Vision blurry and left eye aching as he opens it, Shinji lets out a silent groan, trying his best to keep on to reality, to consciousness. He's been swimming in a sleep-like coma for God knows how long, waking for short moments before falling back to horrid dreams of the battle.

And once again, just as he can feel someone touching his cheek, gently shaking him he fades again..

Back to the front lines, back in the night. He remembers sitting in a fetal position in the dark plug, shaking, the connection to the Eva's mind severed but the pain is still there, burning his left eye.

And then the Eva lurches, and he can feel it rise. A red glow comes from the depth of the entry plug and a rumbling roar sounds throughout the Evangelion. Looking up, Shinji can once again see, again witness the events outside the purple-and-green mecha, and what he sees is the angel's white face, only inches away from the Eva's own, staring up. 'Up' being the key word, as the Eva seems to've tackled the Angel, nocked it to the ground, and severely broken the Angel's face in the process.

Without his order or consent the Eva grabs a hold of the mask _and rips it off_, a blood-like liquid spraying the Eva's face so that it blinds Shinji from what goes on outside, the latter yelping like a little child in shock and disgust.

Then it all fades as consciousness once again grips him, quite literally this time as he can feel someone shaking him gently by the shoulders, and when he opens his eyes he sees his own, or rather a pair very much like his own, staring down at him. Everything focuses intensely for a moment, and he can perceive the visage of his mother standing over him.

The it all fades to red as he once again gazes out through the berserking Evangelion's eyes, mechanical devices having washed the blood of, and Shinji gazes in numb _I havn't got a damn clue what to think_ as the purple hands brings the beaked part of the Angel's mask down repeatedly upon the crimson core, the latter cracking and-

"_Shinji! Can you hear me?_"

"Please, honey, consider what he's been through. I'd say he's warranted to take his time."

"_**How can you-**_Hell.. Oh god, Shinji.."

And Shinji keeps his grip on reality, the physical indication of this coming in the form a wheezing, laboured breath that's apparently a large enough change from normality to cast silence in the room, and then his bed creaks and he can feel someone sitting down by his bedside.

A tentative, female voice almost whispers to him, "Shinji? Please, tell me you're alright."

Haven taken a second to collect his messed-up heap of thoughts into something manageable, all that Shinji can get out of himself is, "If I said yes, would you believe me?" and he is able to smile a little. For his trouble he is embraced tightly, the familiar smell of his mother closing out most others.

"Yui, please try not to strangle the boy," a somewhat sarcastic manly voice interjects, "reviving him _again_ would not be-" but is broken off by Yui chuckling, and slowly letting Shinji go. By this point he has regained most of his senses, thinking _If I live through this I need to start playing videogames so I know how to deal with this stuff_, and as he gets onto his elbows in the bed he recognises two faces inside the spacey room – his mother which is sitting by his bedside, and Gendo Ikari, his father, standing by a pair of chairs next to the bed. His face is more stoic than what can be said for Yui, the neutral visage only reinforced by his amber glasses. But as Shinji looks up at him he does cracks a small smile, and steps around the chairs, behind Yui, placing a hand on the latter's shoulder, "You had us worried there for a while, son. Welcome back to the real world."

Shinji scratches his head a little, letting out a small sigh and answering in a thin voice, "I- Uhm.. Thanks, I guess.. What happened to me, and to Godzilla up top? This isn't heaven or anything?" He looks around briefly, and for a moment he thought he could see someone else standing in the doorway, but as Shinji's eyes turned in that direction he, or she, was gone, all that could be seen was a brief flash of blue.

"The angel is quite dead. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore," Gendo answers after exchanging a smile with Yui, "You were in a coma when Misato's team dug you out of the entry plug, but not really hurt physically. You're fit to leave this place whenever you wish."

Nodding to himself Shinji gets up and into a sitting position next to Yui, "Well then. By the way, uh.. Where are my clothes? I can't exactly walk around in this gown," Shinji says in an inquisitive and confused manner, having just realised the absence of the clothes he arrived to Tokyo in.

Now its Gendo's turn to let out a light chuckle, something that Shinji believes to be first in a long time, and the latter's father says, "We brought you something to change into once you awoke, which'll serve as your school uniform as well."

"_Awh, craaap.._ You're telling me i'm having- I guess it makes sense, but if you're giving this school uniform to me _now_, then school must be starting soon?" Shinji says, and with a malcontent grimace sinks back into the bed, sighing more in a slightly frustrated way than anything else, and the answer comes from his father as he expected it, _**with doom,**_ "School begins two days from now. The battle caused some damage to the city, including the school, so it's shut down for, hrm, maintenance today and tomorrow."

"During that time, you will get some time to familiarise yourself with the parts of NERV that.. well, that are relevant to you, " Yui says, seeming much more collected now, having placed her hands in her lap, "Oh, and you will be shown where you're to spend your time here in Tokyo-3, how could I forget that.. You've been assigned a personal guardian that you will be living with, namingly Misato."

_Boy does that make me feel safe,_ Shinji thinks.

And as if summoned by the western proverb 'Speak of the devil' Misato pops up in the doorway, her hair flowing behind her like a cloak as she steps in to the room, a wide smile practically imprinted onto her face, "Looking forward to that! So, how is our own, personal save-the-world-a-thon 9000?"

Having pondered saying '_Down for maintenance',_ but deciding against it Shinji summons the willpower of a lazy teenager to get up again. Getting into a sitting position, his somewhat lacking garments in the presence of others than family having produced a very slight redness upon his cheeks, he answers, "I'm fine thank you very, _frikkin', much,_ for asking," the four last words being spelt out accompanied by a very slight nod of the head for sarcastic emphasis.

The little exchange produces a small, brief chuckle from Yui, the aforementioned rising from Shinji's bedside, "He's quite alright, colonel. As a matter of fact, your timing is perfect. He's all good to leave the sickbed, so you can pick him up whenever you're ready."

"It's not like we don't want you to stay at our place," Gendo injects as he pushes up his glasses while looking down at Shinji, his earlier smile reduced to a slight strain on the edges of his lips, "but we are extremely busy, even more so now, and for you to live with us would unfortunately be very inconvenient for _all three_ of us."

"Alright, fair enough," Shinji says as he takes a deep nose-breath to gather up all this info in a neat pile somewhere in his mind to be reviewed later. Misato's smile having widened into a teeth-displaying grin, she crosses her arms over her chest and turns her gaze dreamingly into the ceiling, "Oh, what my friends will say when they get a load of _the saviour of the city lives at my place._ I'll have constant company, 24 hours a day.._"_ and when this produces a reaction from Shinji that would be comparable to a mix of confusion and fear, she throws her arms up in the air which is accompanied by a girlish giggle, "I'm just kidding! Nobody's going to terrorise you, kiddo, you'll settle into my place _just fine."_

_Again, feeling completely safe with this arrangement,_ Shinji tells himself mentally, and then continues to say, "Well, if that covers everything for now, i'd like to get changed, and we'll be on our way?"

– –

–

–

–

– –

Being finished with today's work, Maya Ibuki nodded to herself in satisfaction, flipped her laptop into closed mode, and leant back to stretch her arms for a moment. Confident that her blood pressure's gone up to the level that she won't faint from standing up, she does exactly that, picking up the half-read 400 page pocket book by the closed computer, places it in her work bag, and heads out of the office.

Maya is a woman just out of her teens and a brilliant bio-technician for her age, one of the top student in all of Japan, which is why she was chosen for this assignment. She sports a pair of blue eyes and short, carbon-black hair, and is not exactly tall, reaching only 172cm. She wears the beige uniforms that all other NERV employees do, and looks about herself with active, cheerful eyes as she exits her workplace she's spent so much time in, it feels like a second home to her.

_What a day,_ she thinks to herself as she picks her path down the stainless steel corridor, zig-zagging through the thin stream of NERV employees that havn't quit for the day as of yet. Spotting a familiar face, head covered with well-kept dark brown hair and a pair of glasses standing by a junction. Maya waves, picks up her speed abit and she and Makato Hyuga, NERV's fourth ranking tactical officer, exchanges a friendly nod in greeting, and they both continue down the corridor.

"This must've been _THE most_ stressful day of my time here at NERV," Makato says with a small smile on his lips, "All the damn paperwork.. I was thinking of calling for someone to fetch a diving mask and a snorkel! And Shinji worried about drowning in the LCL.."

Maya nods in agreement accompanied by her flashing a teeny grin, and she looks up at Makato, which stands almost a head taller than her, "Speaking of Shinji.. I thought he did wonderfully yesterday. Although it was pretty lucky that he arrived before the Angel.. If we hadn't gotten the chance to train him in any fashion, things might've gone horrible.." she says, her voice sounding rather fearful in the last few words.

"Indeed. He would've fallen flat on his face on his first or second step, I bet. Rei didn't perform much better than he did during her fist real trial run. And she didn't have an upcoming battle on her mind." Makato being honest as always, but then he makes a small grimace together with tilting his head to the side a little, like one who just saw the other side of an argument, "But, I guess Shinji didn't have to deal with synchronising with something like the Vessel. Took Rei months, and when she finally got it working he said it still resisted."

And suddenly someone places a hand on each of Maya and Makato's shoulders, prompting Maya to emit a short but high-pitched yelp, turning around and giving Shigeru Aoba a (to her) hard slap on the arm, "**Damnit,** Shigeru! _Every time!_ Will you ever quit?!" But she says it all with a grin, which is met by Shigeru's own as he retorts, "I know, right! And I promise I'll quit the day you grow the muscle to actually hurt me."

"Oh well then, i'll start going to the gym immediately!" Maya states with a confident grin crossing her features, a nod to herself for emphasis.

Shigeru is the base's first computer technician as well as head of NERV's R&D section, and now he looks down at Maya with a sceptical gaze, his shoulder-long brown hair making him appear like Maya's older brother as he eyes her for a second before answering, his voice a match to his expression, "Well if you're going to do that then please do tell me, 'cus I need to be there with the camera!"

Maya raises an eyebrow, her expression a mix of confusion and amusement, "Oh? Is that so strange? I thought we had established Makato here as the resident super-nerd," and Maya nods in said super-nerd's direction, prompting him in turn to make about the same face Maya did six seconds ago, "Hey, don't bring me into this!"

"Well, considering you're the chief scientist's assistant, Maya," Shigeru goes on with a mischievous grin, arms loosely crossed across his chest, "It makes you the resident super-nerd, _regardless_ of free time occupation!"

Maya gasps in partially-faked outrage at the mention of her being Ritsuko Akagi's personal assistant, and tries -and fails- to push Shigeru away from her, all in a joking manner as she retorts, "You just made that up, **you-** I'll have you know I'm actually reading a book about politics, not those weird comics that, whose name shall be left un-mentioned, reads." And with that, Maya turns her head forward with an air of finality.

Shoulders sloping somewhat, Makato steps in to the argument, "Will you both quit it? You sound like kids. And by the way, Maya, those comics aren't weird, they're classical pre-impact, is what they are!"

"And there you have it," Maya simply responds in Shigeru's vague direction.

The conversation ends, the three friends walk in relative silence as they pick their way through the maze of corridors making up NERV's west, or 'yellow', district. NERV is divided into four districts, each having different functions and can be completely sealed from each others should the need arise. The west district is where most offices are, and different NERV employees of somewhat higher ranking employees carry out paperwork and the like. It also contains the Pribnow box and the Evangelion synch test facilities.

Having entered a lift and ridden it for a few minutes, the three are now deposited into a large train station-esk area with several rows of card-operated gates that lead out into an _actual_ train station, the trains in question leading up to Tokyo-3.

Having gone through a gate and boarded one of the trains, settling down, Maya speaks up again, "I wonder how thing'll get from now on.. Assuming there will be another Angel attack, that is." She taps her fingers gently on her bag as she speaks, her expression more a display of honest curiosity than the earlier unconditional cheerfulness. Shigeru is the first to pick up on the question, "Are you kidding? Things'll get hectic as all _hell_ now that this place is effectively getting militarised and prepared for further Angel attacks. The days of sunshine and rainbows are over, I'd think."

Upon Shigeru mentioning Tokyo-3 becoming militarised Maya's gaze falls to the floor, all expression drained from her face and a heavy sigh seeps out between her lips. She does her best to collect herself, and does shine up a little as Makato continues, "Indeed. And there will be another Angel attack, i'm sure of it. But when it comes, we'll be ready. And it won't be all bad, right? The city's still the same when we spend our time in it."

Nodding, Maya slowly regains her smile, "I guess you're right, both of you," her voice a bit fragile, thinner than earlier. She's clutching her book tightly against her chest as she goes on, "And i'm confident we can make the best of it."

Sighing and breaking into a hearty chuckle, Shigeru grabs Maya by the shoulder and shakes her a bit in a joking manner, "C'mon, Maya! Don't go all emotional on us now! It's the second day of the war and you're already going on about that? Geez, you really-" _SMACK._

"Be quiet, Shigeru! Hold yourself!" Maya barks out in a as authoritarian tone as she can manage, bringing her clenched fist back from punching Shigeru in the shoulder back to her lap, "I swear to god I'll start going to the gym, and next time you interrupt a wonderful 'friend moment' like that, you'll be sorry!"

The three share in a laugh as the train clears the surface and they gaze upon the setting sun over Tokyo-3, a golden glow reflecting on the crimson ocean, telling of things to come.

**End of 'Evangelion – Beneath the archangel's wing' prologue.**


	3. Ch3: The good and the bad

**Chapter 3: The good, the bad and the cigarette.**

Night is falling over Tokyo-3. The city's night life is just waking up, the streets are richly populated with cars, and for one particular Shinji Ikari this is a cause for concern. _Because Misato's behind the wheels._ _First thing tomorrow, figure out buss lines,_ Shinji thinks to himself and clings to the thought as if it'd give him any comfort. _Or steal and _**_exorcise_**_ Misato's driver's licence. Whichever works._

After he had dressed up and left the hospital room with Misato he'd been taken to a garage, same as the one he and Misato arrived in before the Angel battle. They'd taken the car up to the surface, driven about a bit, and now here they are, entering the ground floor parking area of a large apartment house.

Misato makes a hap-hazard parking in her designated parking lot, the ones flanking said parking lot being empty and bereft of an owner whatsoever, which somehow doesn't surprise Shinji. Misato turns the key and the car promptly dies, the two sluggishly getting out. _It's late.._

Misato slams the door shut with a tired sigh and locks the car through a click on the keys, and proceeds to state, in a mournful tone, "This is what I hate about this job, this one thing... **The working hours...**"

"Well, it isn't _that_ bad.." Shinji replies in a more tentative voice, the tiredness evident in his tone as well, "It could be worse."

"I mourn for those who have it worse.." And with that, Misato turns towards the lift on the far side of the enormous room, starting to walk. Shinji walks up to her and they enter the lift together. They're deposited on the ninth floor, they pass three doors, Misato unlocks the fourth, and they enter. Shinji is assaulted by the smell of an unfamiliar home as he enters as well, and then by the light as Misato clicks them on.

Shinji unties/kicks off his shoes with the trained precision of a sixteen-year-old teenager, hangs a jacket he borrowed from Yui upon a hanger and walks down the short corridor that goes down to the right seen for someone entering the house, and then there's a doorless opening, leading into the apartment itself.

He enters a living room of sorts, 5x8m (?) with the long walls on Shinji's left and right. Along the right wall there's a sparsely populated bookshelf and an old flat-screen TV. In the top right corner there's a closed door, facing Shinji. The left side is occupied by a small sofa running about one third the length of the wall, from the bottom left corner up. There's a closed door next to the sofa, and on the far side of that, in the top left corner there's a small table with a cellphone and a really old and worn armchair next to the table. The wall on the opposite side of where Shinji is still standing there is a doorless doorway which seem to lead into a small kitchen.

And as Shinji throws his gaze across the living room, he realises that the smells that hit him earlier wasn't just the smell of anyone else's home – it was the smell of _DEAR __**GOD**__ does she EVER clean this place_ and Shinji gazes in disbelief at the wondrous mess that prevails over the room. There's a mostly-finished dinner plate on the armrest on the sofa, an empty glass on the table with the phone, the TV stands on a throne of wires and cables, Shinji _assuming_ there to be a low stool or something underneath.

The list goes on, and Shinji is thankfully interrupted in his shock by Misato pushing past him and into the room, still wearing the bomber jacket. She throws her arms out, almost steps on _something_ on the floor and has to use her arms for balance rather than the dramatic scene she probably intended, after a few seconds of awkward silence, Misato having regained her balance, she spins around, arms still held out, "Hello MTV, and welcome to mah' crib!" she announces in a gleeful, teeny fashion with a grin that goes from ear to ear, "This, Shinji, will be your home during your.. _Time_, with NERV. Make thine self comfortable!"

Shinji is unable to intercept the first thought that cross his mind before it is mouthed, "Uh, do I **really** have to?" he says in a tentative and worried tone, and then freezes as he realises what he's just said.

But at his little comment Misato throws her head back and a hearty bout of cheerful laughter boils up from within her, which proves contagious to Shinji as he break into a somewhat awkward chuckle himself. Still laughing Misato steps up to Shinji, clapping him hard on the shoulder, "Oh but I thought you'd LIKE the atmosphere! Isn't this the average teen's natural living habitat?"

Calming himself down, Shinji manages to brush away a little of his shyness towards the Colonel and frowns, smiling a little as he says, "Not I. Like it or not, if i'll be living here then we'll have to come to some sort of room-mate agreement, yes?"

Misato's shoulders slump a bit and she gives Shinji a rather confused look, that's soon replaced with a more tired one, "Ugh.. You must be the first teenager EVER," Misato starts trailing off a bit, head turned down, "exempt probably Maya, I havn't quite accepted her as an adult yet.." Then she looks back up at Shinji, "THE SECOND, out of many teens i've ever met that actually need that, and you're the one that stays with me.. Oh well, I guess forming a bro code could be arranged."

Having used up his daily amount of late-hour humour Shinji gives Misato a rather bland expression, and he waves his right hand dismissively in a lazy attempt to get her attention, feeling rather tired all of a sudden, "Look, that's all cool and good, but I would really like to turn in.. Where's my room?"

At the mention of turning in, Misato's earlier cheerfulness fades and her expression becomes plain and indifferent, both her eyebrows rise up in understanding and agreement, "Yeah, go through the kitchen and the door to the left, the room furthermost down the corridor is yours. I keep a sandwich in the fridge for late days like these, you can have it if you like. The bathroom is in the door to your left when you enter the corridor, there's an extra toothbrush there for you." Misato sounds rather exhausted all of a sudden, her body language tired and slow.

Without further ado, Shinji nods with what politeness he can gather through his sleepiness, smiles, and walks past Misato, who pats him on the shoulder as he passes, more gently this time.

One sandwich and a quarter of an hour later Shinji is deeply asleep.

– –

–

–

–

– –

The commander takes his seat behind a desk barely visible in the darkness. He taps a button upon said desk, there's a sound like generators turning on, and suddenly the room is lit up by five other desks in front of Gendo, two to his right, two to his left and one facing him. Those on his left side are represented by the colours blue and gold respectively, and those on his right side red and green. His own, and the one facing him, are white.

Three of these desks are occupied at the moment, these being the other white one, the green and the blue. It only takes a moment's silent awaiting for the red, and then another moment later the golden, to be occupied as well, and the old but stocky man sitting behind the other white desk speaks up, his voice authoritative and even, "This committee is called to session. I'm sure you have all heard the news by now, the Angels have finally surfaced."

"Indeed," says the middle-aged man behind the gold desk, representing France, "And what a fireworks display you made too, Gendo! I'm quite impressed!" the sarcasm is there, subtly voiced but unmistakable.

Scarcely letting the Frenchman finish the young woman behind the red desk, representing the United Kingdom speaks up with a venomous undertone, _"Oh come off it."_ She gives France an irritated stare, leaning on her right elbow upon the desk.

"Please, both of you. Emmanuel, you do have ground for argument, but please settle down. I too, was unfortunately somewhat worried by the report of the battle you send me, Gendo..." the man behind the other white desk again, representing Germany, "The battle was a narrow victory, no matter how you put it on the paper."

"I don't see the problem," Gendo simply replies with a masterful coolness. Another person speaks up before Gendo makes an effort to speak again, "I have to agree with Gendo on this one, chairman your honor," which comes from the man behind the green desk, namely the U.S. committee member, who's just now getting into a more attentive position from his earlier laxness, "We can cover the cost of building an Evangelion, or rather _the_ _Evangelions_ as of now, but some collateral damage inside Tokyo-3 worries us?" also emphasising his last few words slightly with a gesture of his hand as he speaks.

The forties woman behind the blue desk, Russia's representative, says nothing, sitting straight up with hands clasped on the desk, observing the others from behind her half-moon glasses. Germany throws a glance in her direction to see if she has any input, she meets the glance with a silent pair of eyes and a face set in stone, so the elderly man turns back towards Gendo, "Well, Mr. Rosardo here does have a point, but even so, we must all remember; this is only the beginning. We can't afford to use up our recourses to quickly. We have at least five more Evangelions to build, and you, Gendo, have more than a dozen Angels to destroy."

"Indeed," says Gendo.

"Fair enough," America's representative responds.

Germany's representative nods in content, and then takes the word again, "This committee has many more things to discuss regarding the future of Mankind and the Human Instrumentality Project, but I need a word alone with Gendo first."

And with a collective nod from all the other committee members, they all fade away, and Gendo is left alone with the Chairman of the committee. Gendo pushes up his glasses and leans back in his chair a little, his face perplexed, "What is it, Keel? You rarely ever talk to me _normally_, why a private conversation suddenly?"

"It regards Aoi," is all that the Chairman responds with his usual poker face, and this pulls Gendo into full attention, "What about Aoi?" the latter responds.

"Does the boy know?" Keel wonders, his voice less formal, a touch of concern as he leans forward, supporting his aged and bulky structure on his elbows.

"No, and I intend to keep it that way," Gendo responds with finality, his face at once hardening.

"Very well, that was all I needed to know," the Chairman replies simply, and then the other four committee members appears again, the Russian representative in the process of cleaning her glasses, and Keel speaks up, his usual air of leadership and authority back again, "Now, to other matters.."

– –

–

–

–

– –

A deep sigh escapes Ritsuko Akagi's lips as she once again looks down at the unused cigarette in between her fingers. For a full fifteen minutes she's been sitting here, taking turns looking at the datapad on the table before her and regarding the unlit white stick, and for the omphtieth time thinks that recent events have killed her taste for it, yet still she needs it now more than ever. _Oh well.._

Switching to (at least technically) more relevant things Ritsuko looks down upon her datapad, using her long-nailed index finger to idly scroll the screen down to the topic regarding the performance of Unit-01's computerised systems like entry plug life support, power efficiency, internal electrical fire suppression systems, and so on and on and on. This wasn't normally her job as she's primarily a biologist, but technical stuff occasionally comes her way.

Ritsuko scrolls to the side, to a note app, and taps down a reminder to overhaul how the Evangelion's on-board computer distributes power and its priorities. She goes on.

Her scrolling motion suddenly freezes, and in the reflection on her datapad's screen she notices a very particular individual approaching, silently. Ritsuko waits a moment, letting the woman draw in closer before, in a somewhat raised voice as to completely shatter the thick silence in the bar, speaks up without turning around, "Fancy seeing you here, Yui. I thought you just got a wake-up call from the parent's organisation?"

The sudden and loud speech evidently startles Yui, and Ritsuko turns around on her stool, producing a small grin, "You'd be surprised how good a mirror can be when you want to look behind yourself."

A now again collected Yui gives Ritsuko a blank stare as the aforementioned states her facts, which they very much are, Yui's shoulders slump as she turns her face down for a moment with a chuckle, and when she looks up again she's grinning as well, mildly, and she walks up to the stool next to Ritsuko. She puts down a NERV employee bag on the table and spies the cigarette in Ritsuko's hand, "Well this must be something i've never seen before. Such a straightforward question, leaving you in ambivalence?"

"Well, I recall **you** saying that the simplest equations are the most difficult. But it's not a simple equation we face, is it?" Ritsuko states with a calm and factly demeanour, tapping the cigarette against the table as she leans back, looking out through the window in front of the long table that the two women are occupying.

The bar is actually situated on the side of the GeoFront, placed strategically just by one of the railways that go up to the surface along the GeoFront wall. The view can be quite stunning at times, when light is seeping in from the city above and casting the GeoFront in a purple-blue glow, with the golden rays of the sun creating a rather beautiful contrast. Right now, however, the GeoFront is lit up artificially as it's pitch dark on the surface, and everything's just black, or varying shades of a greyed-out whatever might be there, like the forest at the GeoFront floor.

"Quite true. I just left Gendo in a meeting with SEELE. _Those old men and their meetings._ I may have clearance to hear and read every word that's spoken in there, but... I've always had a bias against shady organisations, it seems." Turning her attention from Ritsuko, Yui starts rummaging through the NERV bag she carried with her.

Ritsuko purses her lips in thought for a moment, then turns her head towards Yui, "I am a little curious – what do you think our chances are if another angel arrives, one more vicious than Adriel? Unit-00 should be battle-ready in a few days' time, but will two Evangelions be enough, considering how tight the last battle was despite the sheer luck we had?"

Yui stops searching her bag at the question and looks up towards Ritsuko with an oblivious, smiling expression, "Always worried about the technicalities, huh? No thoughts on the mental health of the pilots regarding this, at all?"

This promotes an amused chuckle from Ritsuko and she replies, "I'm a doctor, Yui, not a psychologist. And besides, he's **your** son, it's **your** job to worry about him. I'll keep his toys running and you keep **him** running, _that was what the contract said_," Ritsuko states in a matter-of-factly manner.

"_Oh, don't make me laugh at THAT_, you're such a horrible person it's _infectious_," Yui returns with a chuckle and a -partially- fake expression of scorn, giving Ritsuko a sideway glance for a moment before breaking into a small giggle very uncharacteristic of Yui, which causes Ritsuko to chuckle a little as well, the two needing a few moments to collect themselves again.

"And I was actually referring to Rei as well," Yui picks up again, brushing away a stray hair as she straightens her sitting stance a little, "I heard she checked in on Shinji with regular intervals when he was in the hospital, she seemed quite curious. One of the doctors described her behaviour as "outright cute". I think it's rather interesting that she'd show such interest in Shinji."

Ritsuko produces a grin at Yui's accounts, and she taps her cigarette against the table a bit before answering, "Well, it's a new pilot we've brought into her attention. She's never quite had an _equal_ in her life before, for all intents and purposes, but I can't really speak for what's going on in that blue-haired head of hers, _for all I try_."

"Well," Yui continues, folding her arms on the table, letting her gaze wander out through the window, "It'll do her good, if anything. And I'm just as curious about how Shinji will react to her as the other way around."

Ritsuko nods in agreement, looking out the same way that Yui is, "Indeed. Although I wouldn't trust introducing them to each others to the _major_."

"No?" Yui asks, turning to Ritsuko, "I think she's the best person for the job. She's got the charisma needed to melt the metric tonne of ice that'll inevitable form between Shinji and Rei." Yui grins teasingly, "You let your bias get the better of you more often than you admit, Ritz."

Raising an eyebrow, Ritsuko turns to Yui in her seat and gives the aforementioned a thorough stare with a completely 'haters-gonna-hate' expression as she retorts, "Well normally I'd _wholly _rejectthe notion of my emotions getting in the way of my opinions on things, but in Misato's case.. She's got the personality of an overgrown butterfly – It's unpredictable, colourful in a bad sense, and all over the place. Had it not been for his extended assignment abroad, I'd have _insisted_ Kaji be given the post instead."

Yui produces a smile at the notion of _him_ as a guardian for Shinji and Rei, "Well, on that point we can argue all night. I still think Misato's the perfect option."

Ritsuko makes a small nod in agreement, thinking that maybe she could agree to disagree on the matter. She puts her cigarette down and draws her hand through her blonde hair, shoulders slumping somewhat. And as she does this Yui takes the chance to sneak Ritsuko's cigarette, and when the latter looks down to where she left it she raises a confused eyebrow, and turns her eyes towards Yui, which says, "I'll take that. One less dilemma for you, now; we have ourselves a mystery to solve, have we not?"

"Speaking of Unit-01's berserk attack, you are?" Ritsuko asks in a somewhat awkward and unsuccessful mimic of a certain little green man, and Yui cracks a wide grin, leaning back as much as the backless stool she's sitting on that comfort permits, saying; "U-huh" at length before bending down to dig something up from her bag. She takes up a second datapad and starts it up, then as it begins showing the little flashy start-up screen Yui turns her head back towards Ritsuko, having enclosed the latter's cigarette in her fist, "Yes, about Unit-01's berserk attack.. You know as well as I that an accident like that isn't technically possible."

Ritsuko's earlier joking demeanour slowly drains away and she sighs, scratching her forehead with eyes closed for a moment as she gathers her thoughts, "Well, you know the indomitable nature of the human soul better than most," she says and meet Yui's eyes, face inexpressive, "The Limiter technology may be a very functional piece of kit, but considering what we are all ultimately dealing with.. I want to just see this from a scientist's point of view, but we really can't, can we?"

Yui makes an almost unnoticeable nod with a rather somber expression, but then she smiles somewhat, "I'm a little surprised to hear that. Have my rambling on about 'the spiritual side of everything' finally rubbed off?"

"Yeah, so it would seem. But it is true," Ritsuko points out now with a small smile, glancing out through the window, "We can hold back Eva all we desire, but within that chest a power bides its time, a power that, when it decides to come out, I just don't think we'll be able to control.."

"Oh c'mon, Ritz, I don't think you should be so negative. Here.." Yui taps her fingers a few times against the datapad's touchscreen and then turns it towards Ritsuko, so that she can read what the digital sticky note says.

"Well, this is all good and fine, I guess, but what if something like this happens _again_?" Ritsuko wonders, raising her voice ever so slightly at the last word. Yui smiles, and puts the datapad into power-save mode, and then puts it down into her bag, "There's nothing we really **can** do apart from hoping that it doesn't, unless you'd like to repeat what happened ten years ago and try to talk some sense into what's inside that thing?"

Ritsuko falls silent and nods, subdued. She strokes back her hair from her forehead and sighs a bit, and looks at Yui, "Well, at least 'what's inside that thing' made an early entry, so to speak. We do know why it'd do this."

"Indeed," Yui answers in a somber voice, "I just hope it hasn't made Shinji too terrified of the Evangelion to pilot it again, for fear of this repeating. I just wish I could tell him how much these attacks occur will depend on _him."_

Nodding, Ritsuko cracks a small smile, saying that, "It's so good to see that maternal love is still one of the strongest forces mankind has to offer."

Yui nods in return, stretching her back and taking deep breath, collecting herself. She then opens her clenched fist and reveals Ritsuko's cigarette that Yui had been keeping there, saying, "I'll keep this, you still got a bit of work to do I see. Try to catch _some_ sleep, at least, Ritz?"

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Yui," Ritsuko says and straightens her back, taking a deep breath, cracking a smile and waving to Yui as the latter takes off with her bag.

And once again she turns to her datapad, tapping her long-nailed finger against the table in thought. And the only thought she can come up with is _God damn it I should've given Yui the entire cigarette pack._

– –

–

–

–

– –

Morning rises over Tokyo-3. A light fog lies over the massive cluster of buildings and sky-scrapers, having rolled in from the harbour during the night and now coats Tokyo-3 like a protective blanket, giving it a ghostly appearance to any on-looker. The sun suddenly breaks over the mountaintops and spreads its light over the city. By the lake Ashino four skyscraper-sized solar collectors come online and turns to face themselves against the sun, the reflection from the massive mirrors bathing Tokyo-3 in the morning light.

And thus, Shinji Ikari is woken from his sleep. It hasn't exactly been a deep one, considering what happened the other day. Not that it really matters when you out things into perspective, even if he'd slept for twelve hours straight he'd still turn his face towards the other side of the room and groan weakly in dismay as the morning light invades his vision.

_It'll take some coercion yet before he moves, that's for sure._ Misato nods to herself, and slowly closes the door fully again, trying and succeeding not to make a noise as she walks back into the kitchen. Shinji may have some leeway today because 1) he just saved humanity last night and 2) because in doing so smashed his school. _Maybe that was intentional?_

But Misato? _Nope, got to be off to work again. Soooo much paperwork to be sorted out, considering the nation's just been assaulted by Godzilla, for real this time._ Misato chuckles silently at the comparison, and throws a glance towards the table to make sure the note she left there is still present – It tells Shinji that when he's woken up and gotten breakfast he's to call a certain number, so that Section 31 can come and pick him up. The note is there, Misato nods to herself as she picks up the keys to her car from the table and sets her course out through the door, locking it behind her. Section 31 has the keys to her house, so she doesn't need to worry about them not getting in.

Closing the door behind her, Misato takes in the morning air. There's a strange tint to the air this morning. Almost like metal. Or blood. Her smile fades away as the smell draws her memories back to yesterday. A sigh escapes her as she enters the elevator that takes her down to the garage. Getting into her car, she could've sworn that it was a darker shade of red than usual, and as Misato drives out of the parking house and into the early-day Tokyo-3 there's a certain gloom to the city, and far less people than she's used to.

That doesn't really surprise Misato, considering. Everyone knew that a lot of people would pack up and leave when Adirael attacked, but it was not expected that the battle would take place inside the city itself. The collapsed sky-scraper might be replaceable, but it seems the death of an Angel leaves a rather permanent scar upon the land itself. Essentially, a small part of the centre of the city, where Unit-01 destroyed the Angel, is no longer habitable.

Misato, Yui and Ritsuko are to fly out there and inspect the damage today, and of course the nerds are going to see what scientific research can be gained from the **blistering hellhole** that was the central square. And that impression is what she got from looking at the edge of the affected area from the ground.

Sighing to herself knowing that it can't be helped, Misato turns a corner and heads on out of Tokyo-3, setting her course for the airfield a mile or so out. Traffic is pretty heavy in her direction, people are leaving Tokyo-3, so she doesn't get much time to ponder on the impact of the attack upon the city further, and then she reaches the airport. It's divided into two sections – the civilian and the JSSDF, which stands for the Japanese Strategic Self-Defence Force. There's queues without end going into the civilian part, and Misato allows herself a smug grin as she turns her car into the JSSDF section.

Having passed a pair of security checks Misato parks her car, and is met by Yui, smiling as she gestures towards a military transport plane standing by on one of the larger runways. They walk in silence to the plane, where Ritsuko and Maya is waiting for them. They enter the transport which departs without ceremony, and it's soon circling the site of last night's battle.

"I'll be damned..." Yui says in astonishment, her eyes hard locked on the scenery playing out underneath the aircraft, "It looked bad from the ground, but this bad... You can see, even the birds are avoiding flying **even close** to.. _that_." She leans back, chin resting in her knuckles and a shiver goes through her body. Misato leans out through her own window, and peers down across the city.

You can see the torn-down skyscraper to the right, a trail of ruined buildings leading off towards the centre of Misato's vision, and then there's _that._

Where the trail Unit-01 made when Shinji desperately tried to get away from the Angel stops there is a sort of shoreline, where the ground has crumbled and compressed. This line is shore to a large pool of crimson, blistering liquid, from which a red mist rises, so thick that it's hart to tell where the liquid ends and the vapour begins. Protruding from this gruesome lake are spikes, made out of tightly compressed steel, stone and glass, escalating in height closer to the centre. What's even stranger is that the red steam seems to cling to these pillars as the mist is a bit thicker around them. There are give-or-take two dozen of these in total.

Misato opens her mouth, tries and fails to get out anything articulate enough, and lets her forehead sink into her open palm with a at once very depressed sigh. When the berserk Unit-01 began bashing at the Angel's core with the latter's own face and the core cracked, the mutilated Angel reached out for the Evangelion, and literally wrapped itself around Unit-01. Unit-01 had fallen to the ground, and for a moment everyone had thought that the Angel had crushed the Unit and Shinji underneath its weight.

But it did something more nefarious than that. Namely, it self-destructed, leaving this "crater". The Evangelion however actually survived the explosion, walking out of the chaos that was left after the red crucifix of energy that was the Angel's last gasping attack had faded. _And now __**we**__ have to clean up the mess, god damn-it,_ Misato thinks to herself angrily.

The airplane makes a pass directly above the crater, Yui shouts something to the pilots about launching buoys, and Misato can hear a clanking sound followed by several metal spheres falling down from the belly of the aircraft. When they reach the outer perimeter of the red mist they open up to reveal some sort of balloons, and as the latter unfold the devices stop their fall and hangs in the air at a relatively fixed position, and Misato guesses they're some sort of measurement drones.

"We've established a data-link to the MAGI," Ritusko announces from behind the screen of her laptop she's just unfolded, her glasses reflecting the computer's screen where numbers and graphs are scrolling.

Misato turns her head away from the window, reaching in underneath her jacket to a small cross pendant she's carrying around her neck by a simple piece of string. She grips the pendant tightly for a moment, and feeling that maybe those drones are saying something at least slightly relevant she lets the pendant go and turns to Yui, "A'right, nerds. What relevant info can we learn from the first-ever observed physical manifestation of hell itself?" She allows herself a good venomous undertone, the comparison very much serious on her part.

Ritsuko raises an eyebrow but does not meet Misato's gaze as she returns, "Why the hostile tone, Colonel? I'd have thought you'd take larger interest in these sort of things, _considering..._" The blonde goes on to scan what the laptop tells her with a rather busy look about her, and the little retort seems to succeed in what it was meant for as Misato's face flares up red and her pupils dilate in outrage, "_Come again_?"

"_Not helping_**,** _either of you_..." Yui sing-songs in a serious tone and kicks Ritsuko in the leg subtly, giving both the Colonel and the blonde a subduing stare. This too works well enough that Misato calms herself, and after waiting a moment to let the fire die Yui goes on to tell Misato what the MAGI can calculate and measure based on what readings the drones are giving off; the Angel's AT field supposedly collapsed completely a split second _**after**_ the Angel exploded, as the MAGI believes the strange rock formations are a result of the Angel's AT field following the shape of the explosion and having then dragged some of the surrounding matter with it. It also seems like there are residual traces of the AT field left as the red mist seems to cling to the spikes, and that the spikes themselves are arranged in exact accordance with the Fibonacci sequence.

The aircraft continues to circle for about half an hour more, collecting data while the scientists inside work in relative silence and Misato sits and broods, looking out through the window. The plane then returns to the airport and the entourage returns to NERV.

**End of chapter 3.**


	4. Ch4: Army material

**Chapter 4; Army material.**

Having woken up _fully_ and slithered his way into the kitchen, Shinji had his breakfast from what could be scavenged from the fridge, and managed to sit and think about what to do for ten whole minutes before even noticing the note on the table. He dialled the number on the note and had a short and (on Shinji's side) rather awkward conversation with some exaggeratedly formal-sounding man who said that a car would be sent to Misato's home to pick Shinji up. Shinji was told to wait at the apartment.

Shinji had to wait for about fifteen minutes before someone nocked at the door an identified himself as "Mr. Ikari's escort", Shinji even believed it was the same guy he'd talked to on the phone earlier. He was well-built but not really burly, although very tall, and dressed in your classical secret agent attire; sunglasses, communication device attached to left ear, the whole package.

Shinji and his escort went down to the garage after said escort had locked Misato's apartment for him (which surprised him a bit) and down in the garage stood a shining carbon black vehicle with defined edges and lines, a flat roof and windows, nothing like the almost aerodynamic cars you usually see in this day and age. A man with wide, short statue and attire that matches the other agent stuck his head out of the car and beckoned to Shinji, and a few minutes later the car was out driving along the roads of Tokyo-3. It takes them about ten minutes worth of driving to find a passage checkpoint that leads down into the GeoFront, and the elevator swiftly lifts the car down to NERV below.

The car ends up in the same garage that Misato dragged Shinji in to the other day, and standing in the doorway that leads into the NERV complex is Yui, arms loosely wrapped about her stomach. She's dressed exactly like she was the day before, in a white labcoat and black tights. The agents that drove Shinji there, that identified themselves as N3 Intelligence Agency employees Sanson and Hanson, does not leave their car, and as soon as Shinji's exited it drives off.

"Is this the time you tell me that the Men in Black is a real thing?" Shinji asks in Yui's general direction in a tentative voice, hands in his pockets as he's still having some difficulty getting to terms with the fact that he's now living within the same city as his mom.

Yui chuckles a little with her eyes turning down to the floor for a moment, arms unclasping their grasp of her stomach and falling to her sides. She smiles and then motions with a sideways nod of the head into the doorway, still smiling, "Not quite. C'mon, today you're officially starting your Evangelion pilot training." Shinji raises both eyebrows in acceptance, cracks a small smile and walks in through the door with Yui, and they both set of to the hangars once more.

"A lot will happen today," Yui starts, hands by her sides as the two walk. The corridor is slightly more populated now than yesterday, everyone dressed in either beige uniforms or labcoats with beige pants or tights, "You're going to have to learn to navigate at least section B as that contains all the Evangelion facilities, but you'll be given a map application on the smartphone you'll be provided here."

Shinji nods, not saying anything, he figures that he should take this in as fully as possible, _It seems like i'll be here a while_. Yui goes on to say that, "You'll be coming here regularly to have synchronisation tests to see how well you synch with Unit-01, both for the sake of scientific research and to see how well you're improving, as synch ratios tend to rise with time. These will be held after school, so unfortunately you'll have little time for other activities during your stay here."

This time Shinji does speak up, part hopeful part worried, "And that's it?"

Yui cracks a small smile at the question, turning her head to Shinji and takes a moment to gather her answer, "Well, today will be a bit different, as well as the first... week or so, depending on you. Today, you're getting your plugsuit, a locker, and-" Yui is interrupted by Shinji giving her a very expressive look of non-understanding and she re-forms her sentence, "Oh, it's a sort of combat... _suit_, that you'll be wearing whenever piloting the Eva. It's designed not to impede your movement to much, in difference to your clothes, which is especially important considering that you're sitting in a liquid. It'll also keep check of your vital systems, it's even got systems to enhance the chance of your survival if you should be in danger, like painkiller injectors and-" once again Yui is interrupted by Shinji raising his hand, this time in a defensive manner, saying that, "Uh, sure, yeah, great, _I don't follow you_, sorry." _I thought those kind of skin-tight suits were a thing only women is bad anime wear. __**Apparently not,**_ he quickly thinks to himself before going on, "So i'll have that when piloting, fair enough. But i'm sure it doesn't take 'the first week or so depending on me' to sort only _**that**_ out?"

Yui looks at Shinji for a moment with a show of surprise at the interruption, and again breaks a smile as he finishes, "No, that'll only be today, that's why we took your measurements when you first got here," -because they did that- "and the rest of 'this first week or so' will be focused on firearms training."

Shinji frowns, and then his shoulders slump as his mind pieces together the meaning of "firearm" from the five times he's ever heard or read the word before, "I guess that makes sense. But, will something such as a rifle be any good against the angels? I threw that knife pretty good the other day, but it didn't seem to have any effect."

"Fair argument," Yui responds as the two enter a lift, which begins ascending slowly, "But all you need to do is to learn to properly... _weaponise_ you Evangelion's AT-field, and you'll be fine."

Shinji's frown deepens a bit, and after a few moments of pondering his shoulders once again slumps as he comes to the realisation that he's never heard neither the word 'AT field' or 'weaponise' before, and he produces a series of small grunts and wheezing noises to express his total confusion before turning to his mother, "..._What?"_

"Oh, I suppose that was never explained to you.. Well, might as well take the basics now then," Yui concludes, for a moment loosing Shinji from her mental radar. She then turns back to him, "An Evangelion generates a sort of defensive field around itself at all times when a pilot is inside it, a field that angels possess as well."

"That was the yellowish shield it used against me?" Shinji wonders.

"Yes. The Evangelions can generate one that is powerful enough to block out most physical assaults even though you need a relatively high synch ratio for it, but this field can also be used offensively to crack an angel's AT field. It's like matter and anti-matter. If they come into contact, they break each other, and this you should be able to do right away."

Shinji nods with a very wise look on his face, he looks away to express his utter incomprehension for a moment before turning back to his mother, "Well, that's all nice and good, but how do I _use_ this... AT field?"

"We'll get to that part once you've synched with the Eva," Yui goes on, "For now, let's go get you your plugsuit."

– –

–

–

–

– –

So, the routine of Shinji's new life is just being laid out to him. He was given his plugsuit, a blue, white and black skin-fitting swimsuit-like thing with all sorts of gadgets on it; comm system, independent computer that monitors his vitals, the suit's fireproof, the list goes on. It's also supposedly got everything he'd need in order to fight effectively with the Evangelion, like adrenaline and painkiller injectors, systems to help synchronisation, you name it. These systems are contained mostly within metal plates on Shinji's chest, back and shoulders. It's also got some sort of gem affixed in the armour, in Shinji's solar plexus region, which started to glow when he synchronised with Unit-01. The suitlooks_ hideous _though_,_ Shinji thought to himself.

Then there was the firearms session. He entered the Eva again and marched it into the same room that he was in the other day and was given a machine gun; a rather large and bulky thing with the magazine on the top, and Shinji remarked that 'aiming down the iron sight' as it were was kinda of tricky, and the reason for this was apparently because Shinji didn't have to do much of the aiming, the computer handles most of it.

So they did that, the Eva having been coneccted to a sort of computer game. Shinji sucked at it despite computerised assistance, and he knew that this would become standard procedure henceforth until he's learnt to nail Adriel's core with the first burst. _Sigh._

But at least there was some excitement over his synch ratio, apparently. It seems he's doing good, beat the top "first-week" score the 'second child' set, the aforementioned being another Eva pilot, according to Yui. And yes, there are other Evangelions exempt for Unit-01. Shinji felt a bit stupid after hearing that, having previously thought his was the only one. Why would someone name a unique robot "Unit _one",_ as if there were additional units? _Oh well._

Then, there is the other Evangelion. As he headed back from the firearms session, he actually saw another unit standing in a cage next to his. Its armour layout was slightly different from Unit-01, mostly in a different chest armour design and the unit itself having a orange and white colour scheme. Then there was the helmet as well. The other Eva is a cyclops from what Shinji could gather, a single massive protruding grey metal eyeball with a red eye like a camera lens in the centre occupying almost the entirety of the face.

There was a person as well, standing on the umbilical bridge in front of the orange Evangelion. All that Shinji could see was that he or she was dressed in white clothing and was wearing something blue on his/her head. _It might've been hair though, which would be odd. Not that i'm judging or anything_, Shinji thought absently as he stepped the Eva into his own cage and listened to the unit power down around him. He must admit that it's a kind of a strange feeling when Unit-01 shuts down, how it's a bit like being yanked back from some other world, similar to this one but with.. something that's off, different.

"A'right Shinji, you can go and take a break," Misato tells him through the comm-system, "You're off the hook for a bit now, but tomorrow this time you'll be heading off to school in about half an hour, so don't you get used to the idea of so much time off. Head down to change and get lunch, the mess hall's not far from the locker room. We'll have another quick session in an hour and a half."

–

–

Shinji enters the locker room after a _surprisingly short_ time spend wandering, and proceeds to change from the plugsuit and take a shower, the LCL has been dripping from his hair the entire way there and it smells weird.

Having showered he walks back to his locker, and as he does he can hear two other voices, which he thinks sound vaguely familiar. He gets his clothes back on and goes to investigate, and finds the manly two thirds of the junior bridge officers discussing something by their own lockers, and they both turn to Shinji as he looks around the corner a little shyly.

"Oh, fifth child! Was just about to mention you," the taller one with the long hair says, who's name is Shigeru, and pushes off the locker which he's been leaning loosely against.

Shinji raises a tentative eyebrow, having stepped up from the corner, hands in his pockets he manages to conjure a casual "and?" Which Shigeru responds to with, "You're taking all of... _this,_ pretty well, you should know. Well, I wasn't going to say that **exactly**, but you get the idea. I'm sure your parents've told you this a million times already and you might be a bit confused as to why _**I'm**_ telling you this of all people, but you're amongst friends and.. I guess 'supporters', here. You're the last line of defence, nobody here wants to see you fail."

The other guy with the glasses, Makato, joins in by saying, "Indeed. And to be fair, when an Angel shows up, an Evangelion is about the **safest** place on the planet." Adjusting earlier mentioned glasses, the First Lieutenant steps up besides Shigeru, crossing his arms loosely over his chest.

Having raised the other eyebrow as well Shinji cracks a small grin and scratches his neck absently, "I wish I had your confidence. The Eva only seems like a glorified Jaeger to me, and after what it did during the battle the other day, went '_berserk_' as it were.. I dunno." Shinji's eyes fall to the floor and his grin fades as he recalls the battle.

This prompts the two First Lieutenants to burst into soft chuckling, and Makato is the first say anything again, "Heh, well, don't let Maya hear you saying that. She _adores_ the Evangelions."

"Why?" Shinji asks, head tilted to the side a little in curiosity and blatant surprise.

"She adores the Evas because she adores doctor Akagi," Shigeru says in a matter-of-factly manner, a grin on his face as he talks, "Not that i'm judging or anything. But seriously, don't say a bad word about the Evas in her presence, she'll begin lecturing you on why everything's great about them, and then she'll spill into-" And here he's broken off by Makato, who steps up in front of Shigeru, arms falling to his sides as he nudges the rambling Shigeru ever so slightly, saying that, "Anyway, you should try have a positive outlook on things here. Learn the layout of NERV, get to know Misato and Rei, since-"

Now Makato's broken off by Shinji raising a hand in confusion as a polite means to silence Makato as he mentions Rei, Shinji stands with his mouth hanging open for a moment before he tentatively asks, "W-who's Rei?"

Makato's head rears back a little in surprise, he and Shigeru exchange a look of surprise, and Shigeru is first to speak up, eyebrow raised ever so slightly, "You havn't met Rei yet? Odd. Well, short story made short, she's the pilot of Evangelion Unit 00. Word of advice, she's not exactly your everyday teenage girl, so don't go in with any expectations."

Shinji makes a smile, feeling at least some of the social awkwardness drain away, "Well, the concept of predicting the future is something I've thrown out of the window at this point, so to speak."

The two lieutenants crack grins of their own at this and Shigeru nods in understanding. A second of silence pass, and Shinji remembers that he was actually going somewhere before he got into this conversation, "Well, it was nice to talk to you, but I was heading for the mess hall. I'm a bit hungry. So, bye." The three exchange waves and the two Lieutenants makes acknowledging nods as Shinji leaves the locker room and sets his pace towards the mess hall.

_I wonder what the deal is with Akagi,_ Shinji ponders to himself as he slowly picks his way through the maze-like collection of corridors and elevators. _Sure, Misato's got a kind of... unpredictable personality. But that can't be all that there is to it. Maybe it's something personal between them, or... Eh, I should probably not assume too much, but Akagi didn't really seem to care much about **me** either when I arrived,_ Shinji thinks to himself with a tight-lipped expression and a slight frown,_ I really wonder why that Maya adores Akagi so much?_

_Well, questions for another day,_ Shinji thinks to himself absently as he stops at a crossroad, brings up his smartphone he was given by the base personnel to consult the m-app that shows a neat 3D layout of those sections of the base that is generally available.

That is, of the base total area, about one seventh.

Shinji nods to himself and picks the right corridor. Just as he passes through the arch that seem to contain a set of doors within the wall, presumably to be closed in case the corridor needed to be sealed off, Shinji suddenly sees a flash of pale blue at about eye height, at the corner of his left eye. He thinks he did at least. He decides to pay little thought to it, the mind does play tricks.

He passes through some sort of detector on his way through the corridors, with a large sign hanging on the ceiling saying 'bio-hazard detector, please walk slowly', and then the mess hall opens up before him. Not very large and roughly square-shaped with rectangular tables arranged in long lines and round ones arranged in clusters in every of the four corners. The mess hall is moderately populated at the moment, the noise is not even enough to blur out the sound his shoes make against the metal floor. Shinji doesn't weight very much, he's a bit thin, and his sneakers are pretty soft so he runs silently as it is.

Shinji uses a card that Misato gave him to get a meal, and he sits down at one of the smaller round tables to dig in. He gets to eat in solitude for a couple of minutes, then he sees that blur of blue, only a speck, not nearly as close as last time, but Shinji sees nothing 'unusual' as he automatically throws his eyes around the hall hastily.

He eats for a few more minutes, then suddenly there's a sound that distincts itself from the other ones in a very eerie manner, as if it normally shouldn't do that; a metallic clanking that seems to echo unnaturally, and it's approaching Shinji's table. He looks up, and when he gets his eyes on the approaching person he stops chewing for a moment.

A mass of pale blue hair, albino skin and red eyes, the roughly fifteen year old girl that is walking up to Shinji is about as close to a ghost you can get without dressing in a white bedsheet and donning a chain. She's dressed in a plugsuit, this one with a white and black colour scheme with a blue gem situated in her solar plexus region. The tech on her suit is much more spread out than on Shinji's, apparently consisting of octagonal blocks placed almost randomly across the suit, giving a much higher-tech aesthetic.

She holds a very feminine stance, almost stereotypically so, but the look on her face as she regards Shinji is just plain.. plain. Nothing at all for Shinji to guess intention or mood, because her mood seems to be _non-existent._

"Shinji Ikari?" the girl says, after a moment's awkward silence has passed in which it seems like the girl was expecting Shinji to say something. At the same time that the blue-head breaks the silence she also breaks Shinji back to reality, and he hastily swallows and answers, "Uh, yeah, that's.. me. Rei, is it?"

She rears her head back a little bit, the fact that Shinji at least has a hum of her name seeming to catch the girl off-guard, but she nods calmly, and in a rather ungraceful manner takes a seat opposite Shinji, "Yes, I'm Rei." She clasps her hands on the table and leans forward a bit, head tilted to the side, face still completely expressionless, "I.. Don't know if you noticed that I followed you here, uhm.." Now Rei does shows some vestige of emotion as she blushes _very_ slightly, seeming to look for a way to express something, "..I hope you don't mind?"

The question at the end comes out very tentatively, as if Rei was wondering both if he did mind and if that was the right question to ask. Shinji opens his mouth, finds no words and and turns his head very slightly to the side and closes his mouth, frowning as he tries to formulate an answer, "I, uh, honestly didn't see you at all, exempt perhaps at that crossroad on the way here. But why follow me?"

Rei takes a moment to sit and simply stare at Shinji as if she doesn't understand what he's asking, she glances to the side for a second in a pondering fashion and then slowly answers, "I was curious about you." She doesn't seem to be lying, although Shinji can't read _anything_ from her facial expression.

"That's flattering, I guess, but now that I think about it, I've seen you before, or at least caught glimpses of you. Were you at the hospital around the time I was there, after the battle?" Shinji leans forward a bit form his side of the table, becoming a bit curious himself. Rei seems totally taken off-guard by this question, and adverts her eyes from Shinji, "...Maybe."

Shinji is about to open his mouth to talk again when he hears the clanking of shoes with heels against NERV's metal floor, again. He and Rei looks up, and there approaches Misato. She's got a cheerful smile on her face, a bit like one of pride. She almost drops her own food plate on the table and sits down with about as much grace as Rei did, and then goes on to say, "Nice to see you too have 'found eachother', so to speak. Good to see you taking initiative, Rei."

The albino girl raises an eyebrow with a blank stare directed at Misato, and the latter cracks a grin for response as she turns to Shinji, "If you hadn't gathered yet, this is Rei Ayanami. She's the pilot of Evangelion Unit 00, which you probably saw on your way from the firing range today. When the next Angel attacks, you two will be cooperating in taking it down. Questions?"

Rei still says nothing, and Shinji nods slowly, "Uh, alright, I guess. About that by the way, do we know when the next Angel is going to attack? Surely there will be some sort of heads-up warning?"

"Well, once an angel show up they're kind of hard to miss, wouldn't you say? But, apart from what our early warning bases can do, that will hopefully all be built and ready before the next angel shows up.. We haven't got a clue!" Misato proclaims and swings her arms out cheerfully as if telling them that was the most important and joyous thing all day. She puts on a wide grin and lets her left arm rest on the backrest of her chair, the other one on the table, and she goes on to say, "There's no way to know when an Angel's going to strike, which means that _you two_ need to stay on your toes. And get to know eachother! You need good teamwork if you're going to be able to fight the Angels together."

"Yes, ma'am," Rei says flatly, followed by a quick nod from Shinji. Rei then goes on to ask, "Will this mean we will be doing exercises to... 'get to know eachother'?" saying the last sentence at length, affixing Misato with an intent, questioning gaze.

Misato shakes her head at this with a sharp sigh, "No, unfortunately there will be no time for that for a few weeks, Shinji here needs to be brought up to speed on how to properly handle the Eva's different weapons and all. We've got a set amount of time that we can take from your school days, and we're not going to take _**all**_ of your leisure time away. It'll simply have to wait."

"Misato, you know I do not care for 'leisure', I have time to do exercises whenever it is convenient for you and doctor Akagi," Rei counters as Misato stops talking, with just a _very_ slight tone of annoyance, as if she's had to repeat these lines several times before, "I am sure that the third child can put aside his in order to prepare for the angels, as well."

"Hey," Shinji snaps in, a little bit harsher than he had intended and he hesitates for a moment. He leans to the side a bit on his right elbow as he picks up again, "The world **might** be at stake here, but i'm no- I'm not a soldier, I haven't got anything close to the discipline that you seem to have." He stops for a moment, leaning back in order straighten his back and build a little bit of confidence, "And just as Misato mentioned, I can barely handle a gun, how can you then expect me to begin to coordinate actual combat with you_ as well_?"

_Good show of confidence there, genius, _he thinks to himself.

What momentum Shinji build up is however promptly broken as Rei leans forward ever so slightly, still not betraying any emotion on her face but there's venom in her voice as she responds, a very subtle sharpness, "I think you should care more about how your choices here impact the future, and the world around you. What if you, and as a result I as well, are not prepared when the next angel appears?" She pauses for a moment, "You do not realise how close you were to failing last time, do you?" Her eyes have affixed Shinji with a penetrating, aggressive red gaze that stands in strong contrast to her calm facial expression.

Shinji feels how he's beginning to blush, Rei's words hitting him as hard as if she have slapped him. At this point, however, Misato seem to se it fit to intervene; she slaps her hand against the table gently and straightens her back, doing a good ol' fashioned job of asserting authority over the two teenagers as she's sitting about a head taller than both of them, "Hey, you two. Ritsuko didn't think that letting me introduce you two to one another was a good idea, and I would very much appreciate it if you refrain from proving her right. Rei, you're both right and wrong here," Misato throws a very brief glance in Shinji's direction, "but bickering over this is no use, the schedule is as it is."

Rei at once seems pacified, straightening her own back and nods at Misato, with a quick "Very well, ma'am". Shinji says nothing, suppressing the urge to simply retort with something petty and mean. He simply nods and avoids looking at Rei, straightening his back as well.

Misato smiles a bit and leans back in the chair again herself, feeling the situation resolved. Rei throws her head around and looks at the giant clock hanging on the wall in a very obvious manner, turns her head back to look first at Misato, then Shinji, say nothing for a second, and then she suddenly rises from the chair, "I should go," and proceeds to do so.

Misato's eyebrows shoot up for a moment accompanied by a sigh, and then she looks at Shinji, "That wasn't the reaction I'd have hoped for.. Oh well. Now at least you have something to fight for outside of battling the Angels, I guess; gaining the.. _**Trust**_ of Rei, at least, she's not much for the whole _friends_ idea, I've found. One might say she's good at Rei-jecting people."

Misato grins at her joke, and opens her mouth with a look of revelation on her face for a moment before actually saying something, "I need to spread that one. The running gag of Rei-jection! I'm a fuckin' genius!"

Shinji raises an eyebrow and, despite not exactly having "warmed up" for Rei he feels like that'd be abit mean, "And you don't think that'd be a bit mean?"

Misato raises both her eyebrows and breaks into a short chuckle at Shinji's comment, but soon calms herself and smiles at Shinji, "True. Heh, I can almost _hear_ Ritsuko's reaction to the whole thing; 'She's a fucking idiot'," Misato says in a condescending tone, mimicing dr. Akagi's voice.

Shinji doesn't really pay attention to Misato, his thoughts revolve around Rei. _If she's here, and already an experienced Eva pilot, by the sounds of it, why am I needed here? Can't just she handle the whole Angel situation with Unit-00? Selfish of me, sure, but I ain't army material, and she seems rather dedicated to piloting. From where does she get that kind of motivation?_

– –

–

–

–

– –

The simple glass tube in which Rei stands is one of the few things in NERV she actively thinks was a correct design decision. Elevators are usually not anything special, but this one gives off a reflection of her that's more vague than mirrors use to, and she feels more comfortable looking at herself like this, for reasons that you, the reader, will not be privy to for quite some time.

Outside the lift there's just black nothingness, the empty rock that the tube goes down through. Then it passes a short layer of a crimson red material, unevenly coloured and the different tints shift constantly like dark pink clouds against a red sky, and suddenly the lift enters a huge facility of sorts. The ceiling is covered in enormous, bulging pipes and the lift deposits Rei on the edge of a depression in the flat stone floor, one that after sinking about two metres and going ten metres out from where Rei is standing ends with glass cylinder not very different from the elevator Rei just took.

The ground underneath her bare feet is ridden with symbols and were one to observe the floor from the ceiling there is a very clear pattern to these markings. The air is hot partially because of how deep down into the Earth the facility lies and partially due to the machines working all around Rei, even though the underground cavity is enormous, larger than a football field in terms of floor space and almost a hundred metres to the ceiling.

The space beyond the glass cylinder in front of Rei is clad in darkness, the only outlines visible being that a sort of trench runs along the centre of the depression, which is oval-shaped, that runs into the darkness from the glass cylinder and a very faint red glow radiates from within. Rei takes a breath and then slowly steps up to the cylinder. It opens to her presence, and she steps inside.

Once inside the glass walls enclose her, and lowered down from the top of the cylinder is a plug suit-like garment, separated into front and back so that the arms holding the suit can simply enclose Rei in it and seal it without problem. The suit is much less bulky than the other plugsuits, and exempt for the large connection node attached to the suit's back, which a bluish tube is attached, doesn't have any blocky mechanical components at all, only small, smooth "mounds" of electronics. It is white and grey, and very similar to Rei's plugsuit in terms of aesthetic design apart from what has just been described.

From the bottom LCL starts filling into the cylinder and sections of the glass cylinder is darkened, one black line coming to life as a golden holographic display, but Rei doesn't bother with it. The floor gives away underneath her but the calm inflow of LCL keeps her floating anyway. She lets the connected node in her back do its work and as the LCL fills over her head she closes her eyes.

**End of chapter 4.**


End file.
